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Esports
Team Vitality's rise from the bottom to CS:GO ECS and cs_summit champions
Team Vitality haven't been around for long, but have already emerged as one of the top teams in CS:GO. We asked pros apEX and ALEX about their rise from the bottom to becoming champions.
"Now, I think people are getting a bit scared of us," says Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire. Team Vitality have only been around the Counter-Strike:Global Offensive scene since October of 2018, but they've shot up through the rankings and revitalised French CS:GO since then.
In just the last few weeks, Team Vitality have won cs_summit 4 and taken home the ECS trophy after beatingBrazilian squad FURIA Esports. Before the ECS Season 7 finals at the SSE Arena in London, Vitality had already reached number four in the global rankings. With Astralis faltering at the top, will Vitality be one of the teams competing for that top spot sooner rather than later?
The players on the team are experienced for sure, but it's always hard when you come together for the first time.
"We’re kind of a new team, we started from the bottom," apEX explains. "We had nothing, no slot for the Major, none of the big leagues, so going up in the rankings was tough for us. During cs_summit we showed that we can be really good, a top contender to win events. People are now starting to consider us a great team, but people will look at us more now and try to counter us. When you're not highly ranked, people just play the game and don't really care about you."
Vitality have quickly risen to become champions
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Now though, other teams will certainly be wary of Vitality for the rest of 2019. Previously, everyone looked to the youngster Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut as the star player, the only one to really look out for. While he did take home the MVP award after the finals concluded, Vitality have now proved that the danger is the team itself.
"ZywOo is one of our biggest strengths," says apEX. "But we've come up from the bottom and that makes us something special. We're all working together and it's really nice to have everyone looking in the same direction and working to improve."
"Teams thought we were dependent on ZywOo," says Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin, a British player who joined the team a couple of months after it formed and quickly became a key member of the line-up. "Here, at cs_summit and even at DreamHack Dallas to some extent, we felt that we are a team, not just a one man army.
"Teams should be afraid of us. One week after DreamHack Dallas we dismantled FURIA, because we have everything going for us. It's just hard work. I think we're one of the teams that works the hardest on the scene. Not that I know how other teams work, but I know what we do. We've got an amazing coach, who understands everything. He put the plan together for FURIA and we dismantled them.
"I think FURIA are really good, but, as with other teams that rise up, they're going to have to adapt and learn how to play a more consistent style. At the moment they're running around, everyone's hitting their shots and it’s working, but we planned from A to Z what they were going to do."
apEX and XTQZZZ go crazy at ECS
© Joe Brady/FACEIT
Vitality's head coach, Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam could be seen passionately yelling and cheering his players on during the grand finals of ECS Season 7. Although Vitality had won cs_summit, they fell short at DreamHack Masters Dallas the week after. This time around, his plan was clearly working and his team were about to win their biggest prize since their formation.
"He's not usually that vocal," laughs ALEX. "I think we were all taken by the British crowd cheering for me and getting behind the team. It transferred across the whole squad."
Although the crowd was behind FURIA when they were the massive underdogs against Astralis, the mood certainly switched for the final, when the crowd had a local to cheer for. For ALEX, it's been an interesting road and now that he's tasted a couple of big wins with Vitality, he's hungry for more.
"When I came into the team, it was tough for me, finding my role and the place I wanted to play in the team," he tells us. "I gradually got there and then was made in-game leader on T-side. From there it's gone up. We've been getting better and I"ve been getting better. I think in the rankings we'll go to third now, but I don't think we're third yet. We can definitely stick around fifth. After six months of me being in the team, I think that's a decent place to be."
Decent enough for now, but ALEX isn’t prepared to stay there for long. He wants to be fighting for the top and staying consistent.
"Of course we can get better. If not, I'd leave the team now, because there's no point. It's great to win ECS, but my dream is to win a Major. If we can't get better and win a Major, there’s no point. It'll take more hard work and not getting ahead of ourselves. In Dallas we were a bit overconfident after winning Summit. We just have to stay level headed. We've got lots of staff behind us to do that and then we'll just go from there."
